The Impala's Soul
by thatlonelymarshmallow
Summary: When Dean discovers that his beloved Impala is missing, he freaks out. He soon finds out, however, that the Impala is not far, but he receives a huge shock.
1. The Missing Impala

Sam jolted awake at the sound of his brother's yells. His worst fears flooded his mind - was Dean in trouble? Was it Crowley? Were demons attacking him? Or was it something to do with Cas? Had he shown up once again out of the blue, but this time-

"Sammy!" The younger brother threw the dirty motel duvet off and leapt to his feet before running out the door and towards the sounds of Dean's voice. "**SAMMY!**"

"I'm _here_, Dean," Sam said irritably. His fears had washed away at the sight of his brother pacing angrily up and and down the sidewalk. "What the hell were you yelling about?"

Dean glared at him, as if Sam should just know. When Sammy didn't say anything, Dean threw his arms in the air, gesturing towards the car park. "_Notice anything?_" He growled. Then Sam realised. The Impala. It was gone.

"I don't understand…" Sam murmured.

Dean lashed his anger out at a nearby trash can, kicking it hard so that it crashed down into the car park, and leaving a dent in the plastic. "Son of a bitch!"

"Calm down, Dean," Sammy said.

"Calm down?!" Dean whirled around to face his brother, balling his hands into fists. "Calm _down_? Damn it, Sammy, I-"

Dean was interrupted by a crashing noise coming from within the brothers' motel room. They glanced at each other - Dean's anger immediately over-swept with confusion - and nodded, each reaching for the guns tucked into their jeans.

They approached the motel room door silently, standing either side of the door and just out of view. Dean caught Sammy's eye once more and nodded.

The brothers burst into the room, guns at the ready - and froze. A pale woman with jet-black hair was lying in pain on the floor, her legs covered by the dresser that she appeared to have pulled onto herself somehow. She was wearing a long, black dress and the foot that had just managed to escape the dresser appeared to be wearing a knee-high, black leather boot.

"I'm sorry," the woman murmured, trying to shift the dresser. "I haven't quite-" She was interrupted by a bottle of water being tipped on her face. "What the-" Her voice failed her when she saw Dean now approaching with a knife. He grabbed her arm and held it out, bringing the knife to her flesh.

"Dean, stop! I'm not a demon!" Dean froze, looking at the woman. Angry confusion clouded his eyes.

"How the hell do you know my name?" He growled, the knife still hovering less than inch above the woman's flesh.

The woman's eyes matched his confusion before falling sad. "You…don't know who I am? After all this time?"

Dean was taken aback. He glanced at Sammy who returned the confused look, his eyes as wide as a puppy's. The elder brother looked back at the woman and then noticed something on the left breast of her dress. His eyes widened, for etched into the fabric were four simple letters: "D. W." and "S. W.".

"Baby…" Dean whispered. "Is that you?"


	2. Finding Her Feet

"Dean," Sam whispered, breaking Dean from his hypnotised stare at the woman. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

Dean leapt to his feet and stood in front of Sammy, only inches away from his baby brother. "Sammy, it's her. It's the Impala."

Sam scoffed. "Come on, Dean. Be realistic now."

"Why is that unrealistic?" Dean said defensively. "What, _good _things can't happen to us for once?" Sam didn't see exactly what classified this as a good situation, but he knew what Dean meant: no one was dead or dying, so that was better than most situations they were used to. "Besides," Dean continued. "Look at her dress." He peered over his shoulder - Sammy following his brother's gaze - at the initials carved onto the breast of the dress.

"Anyone could've done that," Sam said uncertainly. "You know, that's some easy stitching-"

"Hello?!" The brothers' conversation was interrupted by the woman's agitated shout. "Do you mind giving me a hand here? This thing isn't light and I'm not used to feeling pain." The boys immediately lifted the dresser off of her, but she continued to whine as they did. "Honestly, you drive someone around for God knows how many years-"

"What happened to you?" Sam interrupted.

"I thought you were the geek, Sammy," the woman answered sardonically, brushing herself off and uneasily getting to her feet.

"Sheesh, you are just like Dean," Sam muttered. "Okay, what do you remember?"

"Well I was outside sleeping - you know, in my real form - then I woke up and found myself lying in the car park in this body."

"Did you smell any sulphur?" Sam asked. The woman looked at the younger brother incredulously; the look that he all-too-often received from his brother. She threw her hands in the air when he didn't respond.

"I'm a car, genius, I don't know what _sulphur_ smells like!" She leant on the wall and began shuffling slowly towards the bed. When she saw the boys' confused looks, she sighed and said, "I haven't got the hang of feet yet, why do you think I was under that dresser in the first place, because I wanted to see what pain felt like?" She thumped down onto the bed. "And while we're on the subject, I'm not a fan of this pain thing."

Dean, who had been surprisingly quiet through all this, just stared at the human embodiment of his beloved Impala. When she caught his eye, she gave him a small apologetic smile, and he noticed something in her eyes. Behind the sarcasm and sass, she was terrified.


	3. Good Or Evil

Dean breathed deeply, his eyes set on the woman sitting on his bed. "Look, baby-"

"Baby?" Sam interjected, barking out a laugh.

Dean whirled around to face his brother. "Well what do you want me to call her? You didn't mind me calling her 'baby' when...before. She's still the same-" Same what? Dean ran his hands over his face. He was so confused.

"Just call me Impala," the woman sighed. "If it's going to be _that _much of an issue."

"Okay," Dean said through gritted teeth. "_Impala_. We will figure something out, don't worry. Sammy, any ideas?"

"I've never heard of anything that can turn inanimate objects into living beings," Sam said. "There's nothing in Dad's journal or anything." He thumped down at the desk and lifted the lid of his laptop. "I just don't understand," he murmured as his fingers tapped away at the keyboard and his eyes scanned the screen. "Why would anyone even do something like this? Let's say it's a demon or some evil spirit; even if they could do this, why would they do it? What advantage would it give them?"

Dean sat beside Impala and buried his face in his hands. "I don't know, Sammy." He looked up and turned to Impala. "When you woke up, did you see anyone nearby? Or was there anything out of the ordinary?"

A forlorn look fell upon Impala's face as she shook her head. "I didn't see anyone, but I suppose I was feeling quite delirious anyway. I was more concerned with getting in here where I wouldn't be seen."

"Would there be CCTV in the parking lot?" Sam asked, his eyes not moving from the screen.

"I'll ask the manager," Dean said, standing up. "Impala, you stay here with Sam and-"

"No, Dean," Impala said softly, clutching his arm and pulling herself up with him. "Can I go with you? Please?" Dean looked into the eyes of the terrified woman and found himself nodding. "See you back here in 15 minutes, Sammy."


	4. FBI

"Why do you want to see last night's CCTV?" Asked the motel manager, whose name tag identified him as Ian McKellan. He was a tall, lanky man, probably only a couple of years younger than Dean, dressed in a cheap suit and a pair of black shoes that didn't look to have seen a spot of polish in a good five years.

"That's for me to worry about," Dean said as he pocketed his fake FBI badge. The motel manager looked at Impala, obviously waiting for her to produce some form of ID as well. "She's not FBI," Dean said irritably. "She's helping me with my investigation. Now, the CCTV?"

The motel manager gave Dean an unsure glance before reluctantly producing a key to the office behind the front desk. Dean and Impala followed the man into the office and stood next to the desk as he logged onto the computer and pulled up the CCTV footage. The manager found the files from the previous night and was about to press play when Dean put a hand on his shoulder.

"If you don't mind," Dean said with a stern look. "We'd like to watch the footage alone."

"_Excuse_ me?" The motel manager said, an irritated tone matching the look on his face.

"You're excused," Dean said, brushing past him and throwing a cheeky smile at Impala, who hid her smile behind her hand. The manager muttered under his breath before leaving the room, but Dean didn't need to turn around to see that he was still lurking around the corner, trying to get a look at the computer screen. "Clearly we won't get any privacy here," he mumbled. Dean dug around in his pocket and pulled out a flash drive, shoving it into the computer and downloading the footage onto it. Impala watched him with wide eyes, clearly fascinated with this technology that she'd not seen before.

"What are you doing?" She asked him.

"I'm downloading the footage onto this flash drive so that we can take it back to the room and watch it with Sam."

"That's amazing," Impala breathed. Dean looked at her for a moment, then back at the flash drive. _I never thought about it before_, he thought to himself, _but yeah, I suppose it is pretty amazing._

Once it had finished downloading, he ripped the device out of the computer, flashed a crooked smile at Impala, and guided her back to the motel room, nodding briskly at the annoyed motel manager as they passed him.


	5. The CCTV Footage

"Anything, Sammy?" Dean said, slamming the door behind himself after letting Impala into the room.

"Not really," the younger brother sighed in dismay, slamming his book shut. "You?"

"The manager wouldn't leave so we could watch the CCTV footage alone, so I downloaded it onto here." Dean chucked the flash drive at Sammy, who caught it and inserted it into his laptop in one swift movement.

"I'm surprised you managed that much," Sam sniggered.

"Shut up, bitch," Dean muttered, slapping his brother around the back of the head.

"Make me, jerk," Sam retorted without even flinching. But the fake feud was interrupted by the footage beginning to play. Beginning from about 3:00am, Sam fast forwarded through the boring footage of the Impala and five other cars sitting in the car park. Blurs of movement scattered across the screen as a few birds explored the area for some food. Then at about 4:30am, something strange happened; the Impala began to glow.

"Sammy, stop," Dean said, though Sam had already resumed the normal speed. Looks of astonishment and confusion fell upon their faces. No one could be seen near the vehicle; it just began to glow, very gradually at first, and then shimmering like something from a movie. After about a minute of glowing, white light flooded the car park, even through the screen momentarily blinding the boys and Impala. Just as quickly as it came, the white light disappeared. Nothing had changed except that instead of Dean's beloved Chevy Impala sitting in its parking space, there lay the same woman that was stood behind Sam and Dean now, peering between them at the laptop screen.

Sam stopped the footage and sat back in his chair, a resigned look on his face. "Well," he said after a few moments of silence. "That doesn't help us much."


	6. Ideas

Dean threw himself onto his bed, crossing his arms behind his head, and stared blankly at the TV. There was a few moments of silence before Impala's spoke up.

"We could think of _why _someone would do this," she said, flopping onto Sam's bed and also crossing her arms behind her head. "If we figure out the intention, maybe we can figure out who did it." Sam and Dean both looked at the woman, Sam's face amazed and Dean's face proud.

"That's a good idea," the elder brother said, returning his eyes to the screen. "Now then, why would someone do this?"

"For now, let's assume that the main reason was to take our mode of transportation away," Sam said, flipping out his notebook and scribbling in it. "We can think about why Impala was turned into a human after. So how would someone benefit from us not having our car?"

"Well, it would be harder for us to get around, is an obvious explanation. Any of the sons of bitches that we've faced would want to do that to stop us catching them again. Most likely Crowley?"

"That seems reasonable," Sam said without drawing his eyes away from his notebook. "But how does making her human benefit him?"

"Well taking transportation away is one thing," Impala piped up. "But giving you extra baggage is another. I mean, I don't know anything about being a human - you'd have to teach me so that the people around us won't get suspicious or freaked out."

Sam looked at Impala and cocked his head, intrigued. Then he nodded and continued to scribble. Silence filled the room once again as the trio tried to think of more ideas. They didn't want to just assume it was Crowley until they'd explored all the options. The sun beat down through the window, heating the room.

"I'll go get some grub," Dean said, swinging his feet off the bed and standing up.

"Can I come?" Impala asked excitedly.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "I'm only going to the gas station."

"I've never seen the inside of a gas station," Impala reminded him, her excitement not faltering. "Please!"

Dean looked at Sammy who shrugged at him. "Sure," the elder brother said. "Let's go."


	7. The Gas Station

Since they could no longer drive, it took Dean and Impala about fifteen minutes to walk to the nearest gas station. Impala ran ahead of Dean when they arrived and disappeared down one of the aisles. Dean followed her curiously and found her standing in front of the alcohol section, her eyes scanning the bottles.

"You become human for the first time and the first thing you want to try is alcohol?" Dean said, a smile tugging at his lips.

"You and Sammy drink it all the time, I want to see what the fuss is about," Impala shot back over her shoulder, gathering some bottles with familiar labels into her arms.

"Here," Dean said, picking up a basket that had been discarded in the next aisle. Impala lowered the bottles into the basket before meandering around the store, Dean following her and watching her with amusement. Impala threw a variety of food she was desperate to try into the basket until it was nearly overflowing. His eyes widened in horror when she arrived at the magazine section and he quickly grabbed her by the elbow and steered her towards the counter.

"Hey!" Impala protested. "I wanted to see why you're always reading that Bus-"

"Just these," Dean said to the man behind the register, who barely glanced at the pair before taking the basket and scanning the items.

"Dean!" Impala stuck her hands on her hips and glared at the man, who avoided her stare.

"That'll be $25.98," said the shop assistant, finally looking up. When he saw Impala, he blinked and a smile settled upon his face; a smile that Dean had used many a time.

"Keep the change," Dean growled at the man, throwing three ten dollar bills at him, before steering Impala back out of the gas station. "Never again," he mumbled to himself as Impala moaned at him all the way back to the motel.


	8. Angel Aid

"Anything?" Dean asked as he walked into the motel room. Sam was still hunched over his laptop, a stern frown set upon his face.

"No," he said with a sigh.

"I still don't understand why you wouldn't let me see the magazines!" Impala whined at Dean. "_You _read them all the time." Sam shot an amused look at Dean, who reddened slightly as he tensed up.

"Just don't worry about it," he muttered as he threw himself onto his bed. Almost immediately, he shot back up to a sitting position. "Son of a _bitch_!"

"What?" Sam asked, whirling around to face Dean.

"My tapes!" Dean's hands curled into clenched fists on the bedspread. "All my tapes were in the car and they've all gone!"

"Not exactly a bad thing," Sam muttered as he turned back to face his laptop. "Ow!" He picked up the shoe that Dean had thrown at the back of his head and threw it back at him. Dean caught it and threw it to the side in a strop. "Have you tried calling Cas?"

"No," Dean said before closing his eyes. "Hey Cas, got your ears on? We've got a, er," An uncertain smile tugged at Dean's lips as he tried to word the problem. "Well, it's something. And it's weird. So fly your ass down here." The familiar sound of wings fluttering echoed throughout the motel room and Dean opened his eyes to see Cas standing in front of the door.

"Hello, Dean."


End file.
